124,000 people liked this tweet.
Roughly translated, that means there are at least 124,000 people who choose to believe a man who has consistently and verifiably lied (as per The Washington Post Fact Checker) over 4,229 false or misleading claims in the 558 days since taking office.
That mean there are at least 124,000 who support a president who routinely makes stuff up, cheats on all three of his wives and pays off women to say it didn't happen, and cannot keep his stories straight about what he knew and when he knew it.
But the number 124,000 pales in comparison to the number of people who post garbage on social media platforms on a daily basis without bothering to vet, verify, or at least check the dates of stories that sound plausible but are not.
This is not limited to one side or the other.
Some social media friends who are on the far-right side of the political spectrum post stuff that reflects our president's sensibilities...or lack thereof, usually coupled with unsupported material from like-minded friends. I'm not talking about the idiocy stuff here, I'm talking about the type with usually numerical facts like his claim that in his first year in office “we have done more than anybody in a year” and “I accomplished more than I promised,” when in real life, he signed fewer bills than any president since Dwight D. Eisenhower. These are not opinions; these are raw, certifiable numbers. The rate of liar,liar pants afire is pretty high, but rather than start flame wars, I usually send refutations behind the scenes in hope they might read one or two. Rarely are garbage posts removed; the lack of interest in verifiable information is pretty high on that side.
The far-left side isn't any better. This morning, I was reading a post from a left-wing friend about changes poised to be implemented to Social Security. I confess, I was ready to have the big one....until I went back to re-read opening paragraph when I noticed the date was 2015 and nothing in that story ever came to pass. I immediately posted a rather terse scold, and within minutes, the story had been removed. This is a smart guy; how could he NOT check the date? Well, he didn't and the post was quickly and mercifully gone.
Another friend on social media posts so much left-leaning bull-oney that I have apoplexy reading her stuff. And I immediately fire off links, usually from Snopes, explaining why her post is not even fake news; it's garbage. She will invariably write back (with smileys) telling me that's what she has me for........to vet her scurrilous nonsense.
And then, there are the purveyors of fake medicine and cures. I already know one person who opted for the crystal/pyramid cure for colon cancer and went from stage one to dead faster than you can say chemotherapy. Or the the friend who was pushing bone broth as a cure for everything from Crohn's to shingles. There are desperate people out there who read this crap and buy into it because someone they know/love/trust doesn't have the baseline intelligence to google this stuff. People, if wheat grass tea could cure colitis, don't you think everyone would be drinking wheat grass tea and getting cured??????? And if you're still one of the ones who believes vaccines cause autism, please home-school your kids. You don't want to expose them to anything dangerous...like science, much less the 21st century.
If you are posting opinion, that's great. Say it's an opinion. If you are writing about political beliefs and platforms, terrific. Identify and present those planks, positions, and expectations to your heart's content. Discourse is crucial to a democracy. If you are posting stories about alternative medicine, great, but make sure there's well-documented quantitative science involved.
If, on the other hand, you really want to shred whatever's left of the fabric of democracy, keep posting the bullshit stories. Don't bother to check if the quote is even real, or the article is from a reliable news source. Just keep the crap coming without verification. You are doing much more than just driving a wedge into this nation; you are actively polarizing the right and left with so much discord in the center, not even the Russians could compete. But of course, you are not colluding.
Do us all a big favor: make sure you are giving yourself ample credit for your active role in the continued spread of divisiveness and ignorance. Give yourself a big pat on the back, happily knowing all your education and erudition is being put to good use fostering a return to feudal fiefdoms, tribalism, ignorance, and plagues.
I don't need to name names; you are on both sides of the spectrum. You already know who you are.
And I know you are reading this.
Just for the record, YOU are the real enemy of We, the People. Not the media, not the journalists, not the scientists, not even the people who believe in social justice, civil rights, or single-payer health care. If you are actively disseminating fake news, fake science, or fake quotes, you are, in thought, word, and deed, the real enemy no matter what side of the political fence, red or blue, you sit.
For the record, I am not your friggin' truth police, and as of right now, I am stopping that free service. If you want me to vet your crap when it goes up, send me an email and we'll work out the terms of service. Otherwise, you post it, you own it.
Have I made myself clear?
The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week
If you cannot cite the source or the science ~ don't post it
If you cannot provide context and vetted attribution for a quote ~ don't post it.
If you don't want your mother to know you wrote it, photographed it or shared it,
for G-d's sake, don't post it.
WP,
ReplyDeleteExcellent column and something that needed to said. This is the primary reason that I stay away from the majority of social media, and am not on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc. It’s not only the staggering ignorance of the postings on these sites, it’s the lack of meaningful and informed debate. It becomes a “Twitter War” that has no context or shape. Just a series of meaningless volleys tossed between one moron and another.
I am concerned about the effect that is having on younger people and their ability to distinguish between fact and fiction. When I grew up in the UK, we were able to understand that there was a difference between the tabloid hype of the Sun and the Mirror and serious journalism (albeit politically slanted) in the Guardian or Telegraph. Now those lines are blurred, and it doesn’t help when senior politicians put all news outlets into the same camp. If ALL news is fake, except for your preferred outlet, then it just becomes propaganda. Witness the mess in Venezuela, where Maduro ‘s state run broadcasts tell everyone that things are fine, whereas simple observation will tell you the opposite.
We need a Fourth Estate, that tells truth to power and is not beholden to it.
I think a lot of people don’t understand the concept of fact checking and the importance of accuracy. That’s why real journalism is hard. Someone recently tried to get me to buy a subscription to the Pioneer Press recently and I told them that every story in their publication (except for local interest) was an AP or Reuters’ article. When major newspapers continue to shut down foreign bureaus, we are increasingly at the mercy of crisis-driven clickbait on social media that bears little relation to the truth.
Well said Ma'am.
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